Church not against a firing-squad ban

All members of the commission favor moving to the lethal injection method as soon as possible to stop the "media circus" that surrounds firing squad executions, Boyden said.

By choosing the firing squad, "the defendant has the opportunity to be somewhat in control and create a media circus," Boyden said. "In Utah, the firing squad is not big news, but both nationally and internationally it is."

The situation also permits a person convicted of capital murder to "focus attention on himself rather than the victims or the heinous deeds he has committed," Boyden said.

"The real issue is whether we would create any possible delay in executions — would we give death-row inmates an issue for appeal," Boyden said. "We're pretty confident that they'd never succeed on appeal. We've reviewed case law. The only question is whether the court process in sorting those issues out would cause a delay, which is something we would not want to do."

The commission members agreed to table the matter for now and ask the Utah Attorney General's Office for more input and will arrange to discuss the issue further at its October meeting.

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